Philippines starts new school year with pilot of revised K to 12

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The move to decongest the senior high school curriculum will be tested in hundreds of schools, following years of criticism against K to 12 and calls for reform

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines on Monday, June 16, began a new academic year with the pilot implementation of the revised K to 12 program, particularly the new senior high school (SHS) curriculum.

The Department of Education (DepEd) is piloting the revised program in 889 schools nationwide, 12 years after K to 12 was formally approved through Republic Act No. 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.

K to 12, which added two years to the country’s basic education system, has drawn criticism in the past decade, stemming from inadequate resources, higher costs for parents, poor quality of education, and SHS graduates’ lack of skills. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself said in 2024 that the program did not improve the employability of Filipinos.

Under the revised program, core subjects to be taken by all Grade 11 students have been reduced from 15 per semester to five per year. There will now be just two tracks — Academic and Technical Professional or TechPro — from four. Grade 11 and 12 students are also free to choose their elective subjects regardless of track.

This follows a DepEd review that found the SHS curriculum too congested and lacking focus on students’ core competencies.

But for K to 12’s critics, SHS should be removed altogether. Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada in early June filed Senate Bill No. 3001 or the proposed Rationalized Basic Education Act, saying that students and parents should no longer “shoulder the extra time and cost of senior high school.”

Estrada’s bill proposes one year of kindergarten, six years of elementary education, and four years of secondary education.

Familiar challenges also persist in the new school year.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara acknowledged that it will still be a difficult year for the sector, citing a shortage of 165,000 classrooms nationwide.

Angara said it could take more than half a century to eliminate the classroom backlog if the government maintains its current pace of construction.

Last year, he was confronted with the classroom shortage during his first school opening as education chief. The former senator took over the DepEd leadership on July 19, 2024, following the resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte from the Marcos Cabinet.

During Duterte’s tenure as education secretary, the DepEd was able to build only 192 of the 6,379 target classrooms, or just 3%, based on Commission on Audit findings.

In a statement on Sunday, June 15, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers urged Congress to immediately “double” the education budget to “address the worsening education crisis confronting millions of students, teachers, and parents across the country.”

The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) Year Two Report, released in January, shows that despite growth in the education budget over the years, funding remains inadequate. The Philippines has been failing to meet the recommended education spending benchmark of 4% to 6% of gross domestic product (GDP).

EDCOM 2 noted that the country has allocated an average of only 3.2% of GDP in the last 10 years for its education budget.

The dismal academic performance of Filipino students is a major problem as well. Angara hopes that under his leadership, he will be able to improve the Philippines’ performance in global education assessments.

The DepEd expects some 27 million students to be enrolled for school year 2025-2026 in over 47,000 public schools nationwide. – Rappler.com